-Caveat Lector-
from alt.conspiracy
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As always, Caveat Lector.
Om
K
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<A HREF="aol://5863:126/alt.conspiracy:513900">Custody Conspiracy, Insight
Mag Story
</A>
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Subject: Custody Conspiracy, Insight Mag Story
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Ohnoapr)
Date: Sat, Apr 10, 1999 1:14 PM
Message-id: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Good example of how/why women are losing custody in droves in domestic
violence/child sexual abuse cases.
http://www.insightmag.com/articles/story3.html
"Is Justice for Sale in L.A.?"
By Kelly Patricia O'Meara
Insight Magazine
Previous Story on Parental Alienation Syndrome and how court corruption and
bogus theories doom children to lives of incest.
Published in Washington, D.C.. . . . Vol. 15, No. 15 -- April 26, 1999 . . . .
www.insightmag.com
Has Psychiatry Gone Psycho?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Kelly Patricia O'Meara
A pop-psychology theory, parental alienation syndrome, is being used in
custody
cases to defend fathers accused of incest by blaming mothers for being
narrow-minded.
<Picture: S>ix-year-old Eric Hashimoto described to Merced, Calif., detectives
and child protective services how he was forced to perform oral sex on his
father and the abuse he endured if he refused. In Sacramento the
sexual-assault
team believed Eric's claims, thoroughly supported by horrifying details. But
despite overwhelming evidence presented to the court that both Eric and his
mother, Michelle, were victims of physical and sexual brutality, sole custody
was awarded to the father in this 1996 case. Michelle has been allowed just
one
four-hour visit since.
. . . . Irene Jensen of Salt Lake County, Utah, also can document a long
history of physical and sexual abuse by her ex-husband. He is listed in Utah's
Child Abuse/Neglect database, and nine experts, including 6-year-old daughter
Brittany's pediatrician, provided testimony to the court supporting the abuse
accusations. But Jensen's ex-husband was awarded sole custody of Brittany in
1995, and Jensen is allowed just one eight-hour visit each month and
prohibited
from making any other contact with her daughter.
. . . . Karen Anderson's daughters, ages 4 and 7, told her and child
protective
services that they had been molested by their father. The Amador County,
Calif., sheriff's department provided a statement supporting the accusations.
But during the custody hearing, Anderson was barred from testifying or
presenting evidence and witnesses. Her ex-husband was awarded sole custody of
the children, and she is allowed only court-monitored three-hour visits twice
a
week.
. . . . The bizarre outcomes of such cases -- in which child custody can be
awarded to a sex abuser -- is the result of court acceptance of an
unscientific
psychological fad. This theory, referred to as parental alienation syndrome,
or
PAS, holds that one spouse, usually the mother, is at fault for accusations of
sexual abuse that may arise during a custody case. A mother's objections to
the
behavior, according to PAS, has the indescribable effect of turning the child
against the father. Therefore, the mother's influence over the child should be
halted.
. . . . According to the developer of the theory, Richard A. Gardner, a
clinical professor of child psychiatry, PAS is "a disorder of children,
arising
almost exclusively in child-custody disputes, in which one parent (usually the
mother) programs the child to hate the other parent (usually the father)."
. . . . If a child demonstrates negative feelings toward the father, Gardner's
PAS puts the blame on the mother and explains that the confusion is best
remedied by increasing the child's time with the father.
. . . . Although PAS is not exclusive to mothers, they are said to make up the
majority of the so-called offenders, especially when there are accusations of
sexual abuse. The syndrome has been a focus of pop-psychology attention for
more than 10 years but, as is typical of such fads in the mental-health
fraternity, no statistics about the number of parents who have been
"diagnosed"
with PAS are available.
. . . . Critics of Gardner's PAS charge that because the theory is not based
on
systematic research or testing it should not be called a syndrome, but that
charge makes little difference to true believers. Gardner developed his theory
through personal observations of families during child-custody disputes. And
it
doesn't matter to advocates that PAS has not been recognized by the American
Medical Association or the American Psychiatric Association. Nor does it
matter
that many of Gardner's peers who have reviewed his theory openly say that it
lacks scientific reliability and validity.
. . . . "PAS is not research-based, and it has done a great injustice to the
family and the justice system," says Jon Conte, a psychologist at the
University of Washington. He adds, "The criteria that Dr. Gardner has
developed
are virtually useless. He operates on the premise that if you say a lie often
enough people will believe it." Bruce Wiseman, president of the Citizens
Commission on Human Rights, a California-based organization that investigates
and exposes violations of human rights by mental-health practitioners,
concurs,
saying Gardner's approach "has no scientific basis. This is a guy who comes up
with a theory and sells it to the courts because the judge doesn't know any
better. Anyone who tells you this is science is wrong."
. . . . Brian Holmgren, a senior attorney for the National Center for
Prosecution of Child Abuse, says, "The [PAS] decision doesn't belong in the
courtroom, and when we get calls where someone is testifying about PAS we
attempt to provide scientific information on how best to argue against it.
There has been extensive literature in well-respected medical journals
ridiculing his theory, but still there is some perceived relevance to it in
the
court."
. . . . Gardner explains to Insight that PAS "is being misapplied in some
cases" but nevertheless argues, "It can't be that all the people who have
written articles about it or the judges who use it are wrong."
. . . . While many articles have been written critiquing Gardner's PAS theory,
it is his view on sexual-abuse allegations by children that is the most
controversial. In the pages of his numerous self-published books and articles,
Gardner proposes that pedophilia serves procreative purposes. Says a peer
review in Treating Abuse Today, "The younger the survival machine at the time
sexual urges appear, the longer the span of procreative capacity, and the
greater likelihood the individual will create more survival machines in the
next generation."
. . . . Gardner further asserts that "society's excessively moralistic and
punitive reactions toward pedophiles ... go far beyond what I consider to be
the gravity of the crime." When a child has been sexually abused and feels
guilt about it, Gardner suggests, the child may be helped to appreciate that
"sexual encounters between an adult and a child are not universally considered
to be reprehensible acts. The child might be told about other societies in
which such behavior was and is considered normal." If sexual urges continue
after the abuse ends, Gardner suggests such children be encouraged to
masturbate.
. . . . As for the alienating mother, Gardner explains that many of these
women
have been victims of sexual abuse themselves and may have sexual problems in
their marriages. To address this problem, the psychologist suggests that "one
has to encourage experiences, under proper situations of relaxation, which
will
enable her [the mother] to achieve the goal of orgastic response." In this
instance, according to the same peer review article, Gardner suggests that
vibrators can be useful and "one must try to overcome any inhibition she may
have with regard to their use."
. . . . An apparent benefit of the mother's use of a vibrator is that "her
diminished guilt over masturbation will make it easier for her to encourage
the
practice in her daughter, if this is warranted." With this imagined solution,
Gardner believes, the mother's "increased sexuality may lessen the need for
her
husband to return to their daughter for sexual gratification."
. . . . On the other hand, Gardner suggests that the molesting-father's
behavior should be understood. The father "has to be helped to appreciate
that,
even today, [pedophilia] is a widespread and accepted practice among literally
billions of people" and "he [the father] has had a certain amount of bad luck
with regard to the place and time he was born with regard to social attitudes
toward pedophilia."
. . . . During a brief interview with Insight, Gardner refuses to answer
personal marital or family questions, saying that "they aren't relevant." He
does, however, offer information that he never has "been in a custody case,
sexually abused, accused of sexual molestation -- and had never sexually
abused
a child." When asked if he supports pedophilia, Gardner says, "I'm not
recommending it for a second, and anyone who says I'm supporting it is wrong."
. . . . Judith Reisman, president of the Institute for Media Education and
author of Kinsey, Crimes and Consequences, has another view. "Anyone who
thinks
and says that incest can be avoided if the mother has better sex with the
father may clinically be defined as a psychopath and needs help." She adds
that
"buying a vibrator is not going to make a happy home. Obviously he has his own
demons to deal with."
. . . . David Gatewood, supervisor of counseling at Focus on the Family in
Colorado Springs, believes that Gardner's theory is an attempt to bring a
nonadversarial approach to custody issues. "It can be a legitimate syndrome,"
Gatewood says, "but I think Gardner is trying to get it applied in every
child-custody suit. It's just not appropriate. Gardner seems to minimize the
abuse that is going on, and I have great trouble with him being used as a
resource, given his ideas on pedophilia."
. . . . Many of the mothers who have been stripped of their parental rights
because of alleged PAS blame not only Gardner and his theory but the court
system that credits it. "The entire system is perverse," says Anderson. "The
more evidence you have, the more you are attacked and, in the meantime, the
kids are being destroyed." Anderson concludes that "as long as you have a
mother fighting for her kids, psychologists and lawyers who credit this sort
of
thing know they're going to keep making money."
. . . . Hashimoto also thinks money is the bottom line but, for her, being
branded as having PAS has caused damage that no amount of monetary damages
could fix. "By accepting the PAS, the system has abused my son as bad, if not
worse, than his father," she tells Insight.
. . . . Jensen vows that she never will stop fighting for her daughter. She
sees the system as money-generated but is convinced that with official
acceptance of Gardner's PAS theory and changing state laws, mothers seeking
custody can be in a no-win situation. "I never should have allowed the
pediatrician to mention the abuse," she says, "but if I didn't, I could have
lost her for failure to protect. It really is a 'damned if you do and damned
if
you don't' situation."
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Aloha, He'Ping,
Om, Shalom, Salaam.
Em Hotep, Peace Be,
Omnia Bona Bonis,
All My Relations.
Adieu, Adios, Aloha.
Amen.
Roads End
Kris
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